I think that statement alone speaks to the value of the program.

Thank you very much. Thank you all.

The SBA allows no refinancing of existing debt by the bank that currently holds the debt. This restriction . . . prohibits the borrower from obtaining new financing critical to continued success.

I think my principal concern is that, you know, $5 billion in a quarter for the SBA is probably a pretty good number.

I think we need to pursue it and understand it and see if it needs to be changed.

But there are many people who lose their benefits much sooner if we do not pass this extension?

But I completely, respectfully, disagree that it is inappropriate, when unemployment benefits are threatened for our workers in our States, to come to this floor and say: This matters. This matters for working families. When I was asking…

I have before me a chart on workers losing Federal unemployment benefits at the beginning of March. It notes 'Workers Exhausting Regular State Benefits without Additional Federal Extensions' as 380,000 workers. Then there is an additional…

So if I understand right, there is the complete opportunity to have a debate 30 days from now, but we could have had the debate tonight because there could have been a vote tonight. It was offered but turned down. There will be…

It is a double standard that bothers me a great deal. We in this Chamber are fortunate enough to receive a paycheck. But back home, I have a tremendous number of families, working families in Oregon who are not going to get a paycheck. I…

So the principle being presented tonight is that if you are fortunate to be among the wealthiest Americans, we will give you additional benefits and it doesn't matter if we pay for them. But if you are among the most unfortunate Americans…

I am confused. I am confused that the principle has been put forward tonight that there is a reason to hold up a program that hasn't been paid for. Even if we haven't been here late into the evening having a discussion about paying for the…

I am a new Senator. I have been here just over a year. But I don't recall, in January of 2009 when I arrived, that any Member stood up and said: I am going to hold up everything right now until we pay for the tax cuts for the wealthiest…

First, I would like to know, as we stand here tonight, have we paid for the tax cuts handed out to the wealthiest Americans?

I am deeply disturbed that one could be so disconnected from the challenges of working Americans as to have us in the situation we are in at this moment.

One of the things that we have heard about in this Committee is the role of BPA.

Well, turning to DDT, it remains persistent in the river system despite that fact it was banned some time ago.

Thank you again for your leadership on this.

I would like to thank the Chair, Senator Cardin, for convening this hearing, for including the important issue of the threats facing the Columbia River Basin.

Another thing you mentioned in your testimony was that various products have hormonal effects.

I wanted to ask about the exploration of different designs that might inherently increase the safety of nuclear power and therefore also might reduce its cost.

It should be an issue of intense analysis and changing the policy if these comprise a risk to our Nation.

we could sort of allow certain institutions to be able to escape the regulatory situation if they were to divest their banks

I want to turn back to that example to pursue that a little bit further.

all firms that are systemically important need to come under the same umbrella of regulation